‘Vaguebooking’ and overshare: MyLife survey reveals “Lack of social etiquette”

Posted on: 04/02/2013 By : Castleford Staff

Social media makes it very easy to keep up with the life events of friends, family, colleagues and even those you're not particularly fond of but are friends with on the network.

Users turn to websites such as Facebook to post updates on their latest situation, announce their engagement or new employment, post pictures of their weekend, like their favourite new movie or check into a restaurant.

Yes it's nice to see pictures of your friend's trip to Africa and yes it's fantastic to see a video of a family member graduating – but no, we don't want to see updates about it clouding our newsfeeds every hour or so!

A U.S. survey carried out by MyLife.com revealed the "general lack of social etiquette" among parts of the population with a number of users comitting a range of social media faux pas.

One of these errors pointed out by the MyLife infographic was the tendency to share too much, with over a third of those surveyed (36 per cent) admitting to posting TV or movie spoilers on their social networks.

It wasn't only spoiler alerts that put a dampener on the social media experience, with aggressive politics also playing a part.

There's almost always a social media connection who shares their political opinion left, right and centre, with MyLife describing this user as 'Joe Politics' who often insists that "his/her opinion is the only opinion".

More than a third (35 per cent) of social media users post political opinions at least once a month, with one in ten users losing friends because of their political posts!

MyLife also touched on the 'vaguebooker' social media user whose status updates are so vague that followers have "almost no choice" but to comment for more detail.

These kind of vaguebooking statuses are posted intentionally to solicit friends to inquire and react for more information, with one in four people aged between 18 and 35 guilty of this practice.

"Today, consumers are tied to their social media channels, and both actively contribute to and consume a growing influx of content, including status updates, photos and check-ins," said MyLife chief executive officer Jeff Tinsley.

"Because social media users have the freedom to say just about anything they want via these channels, social media is an arena for common, unpleasant social faux pas. Users need to become more aware of their online behavior, and keep in mind how their self-expression is perceived by their online communities."